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Saturday, March 7, 2009

Mercy continues to be a pretty sick little girl today. She has a low grade fever (100.5 or so), and is not eating or drinking much. Unfortunately her IV needed to be changed because it was getting red looking, so she had to have that too.

The doctors are pretty convinced we are dealing with a stomach virus. The bad side of this is that with propranalol, children tend to have their blood sugars drop when they are sick and throwing up. So it is good we are in here as they can have her hooked up to IV fluids and avoid dehydration. I thought she was maybe going to get to go home tomorrow, but then while I was writing this, she threw up again. I guess tomorrow may not happen. :(

They have stopped giving her the propranalol and lasix while she is sick. So currently she is only getting her prednisone, and zantac. At some time in the middle of the night I realized that soon we will just be down to three daily doses of propranalol... and then eventually we will have no medications at all to be giving her!!!

Friday, March 6, 2009

The day started really, really well this morning. When Mercy got up I thought the hemangioma may have looked smaller and felt softer. Of course, this is what I was hoping for, so I thought maybe I was just imagining things. It also seemed her eye opened a little better. When Dr. Adams and all the residents / fellows who do the rounds came in, all of them agreed with this before I mentioned my thoughts.

This is a very subjective sort of thing, nothing objective about it at all. Mercy will have another MRI in a month, and that will be compared with the MRI from last week, and THAT will be the definitive measurements. But for today at least, it looks like the hemangioma may be responding to the propranalol. (Maybe?)

We had a good morning... went to the toddler room to play for a couple hours. Mercy acted great, no problems. We returned to the room at 12, and she immediately started going downhill. Her blood pressure was very low, but they finally got a reading that was OK. Then she started throwing up, and has been throwing up all afternoon. Since one of the propranalol issues is the need to keep her hydrated so that her blood sugar doesn't drop, this is a big deal. She is now on IV fluids for the night, and we are probably not going to be able to leave tomorrow morning.

They think that maybe she picked up something from the hospital... a stomach bug or something. But there is the chance that this is a reaction to the medicine. I could use prayers! I am thankful for the computer as a way to still connect with everyone, but I would rather be home with my husband and kids!!!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Welcome to The Garden Club! Today is our First Club Meeting... so feel free to jump in! With all the people trying to learn to grow food for their families, I thought it would be a good idea to give us all a day to post about our progress and to ask questions of those who have done this a time or two more than we have. It will be a great place to come to find some collective wisdom... whether in successes or failures.

As some of you may know, I am in the hospital this week with my little one... if you want more information on her, click the Mercy Medical Link, and you will be able to read other posts on her.

Since I knew I would be having our first meeting while here, I took some photos of what's going on with my seed starts. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera cord to download them to my laptop, so this post will have to be photo-less.

You can go here , here, here and here to see my previous weekly posts on my seed starting adventures. Last year I planted a garden, and this year my wonderful husband (did I mention he is home with the 8 non-hospitalized children?! What a guy!) built me a "grow station" above my washer and dryer to start seeds. They are doing great!!!

- This week I learned that whatever is in the Jiffy pellets you use water to expand will get the seeds to sprout in about half the time of the Jiffy Seed Starting Soil. Just FYI.

A funny thing happened last weekend... a friend who reads this blog (Hi Maria!) said that around our town I needed to be careful who I told about my Grow Lights as most people who what grow lights are not growing Vegetables, but other Recreational Drugs, if you catch my drift. Ahem.

Monday morning I was laying in bed waking up, and what did I hear but a HELICOPTER flying over my house. First thing I thought was, "Guess someone tipped off the National Guard..." Haha. Around here the NG will fly over periodically and be sure they cannot find anyone growing pot. It struck me as humorous, especially in my sleep deprived state.

So here are the rules:

-Take the photo from the top for your post.-Post about your week's progress (or plans for next week) in a post...- Be sure to link back here- Put your address in Mr. Linky, hereafter referred to as the Garden Guru... then go over to all the other Gardening Posts and start turning those black thumbs green!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Many of us are feeling the price crunch when it comes to feeding our children healthy foods... when cucumbers and peppers are over $1 each, we need to think of something else to do. So many of us are trying to turn black thumbs slightly green by learning to garden.

Unfortunately, many of us don't know what we are doing. So I thought of making an online Garden Club. I will put a Mr. Linky (I am going to name him The Garden Guru if it will let me...) on my site on Friday Morning. You post something which tells about your garden progress, or asking a question. Then everyone can go visit each other, offering encouragement and advice. Don't you think it will sound like a great idea? I hope people participate!

Thanks to the great Computer Expert ~ The Cap'n ~ we have a button for our new Garden Club! Take it over to your own site if you want to participate!

And just for the record... I planted lots of seeds last Thursday. Over 50 % of the tomato seeds in the little pods (you know the presto ones that you add water to and they expand?) have sprouted, and NONE of the ones in the Jiffy Seed Starting Mix have sprouted yet. Interesting, huh? I wonder what those pods have the the Mix doesn't?

Start thinking and preparing for your post on Friday! (I do want to let people know that I will be in the hospital with Mercy on Friday, so it might be Saturday if I cannot get wireless on my laptop... )

Two weeks ago we were in the thick of things with fighting the insurance company to cover Mercy's treatments. Eric and I were pretty frustrated at the denials which just seemed to be unreasonable. I posted about it, and got many people praying. I also got some reminders that God is in control, and to be sure we continue to walk in the Spirit and remember we are examples of Him.

Thanks for those reminders! I needed them!

Last Wednesday we got the approval, and scheduled the time in the hospital to start tomorrow. I was relieved, and thankful, but still a little resentful at the difficulty we had getting this done. After all- if we didn't do the experimental propranalol we would have to do Chemotherapy!!!

Well, let me show you how great our God is. And the power of prayer. And the fact that mountains are still moved with the faith of a mustard seed.

Yesterday Eric got a phone call from the president of the insurance company. Anyone know we would never in a million years expect that? Anyway- she explained that the company never approves experimental procedures, but that she personally had decided to approve it. Why would she do that? She has a nephew who had a large facial hemangioma, with eye socket involvement, so she "understands" hemangiomas. She has taken such an interest in Mercy's case that she has already preapproved for us to go to New York to see Dr. Waner (the most famous hemangioma surgeon in the world). We don't feel a need to use this option, but it is so nice to know that if we want to, she would approve it.

It is also nice to know that we will no longer have to struggle for approval for anything Dr. Adams wants to do with Mercy's treatment. We have this woman's extension, and orders to call her if we ever need anything.

Can you tell me that isn't just an awesome move of God? I didn't understand why in the world there would be such a struggle to try one last thing before we need to do chemotherapy. Now I know... this one struggle has paved the way for us to not need to struggle again as long as Eric's company uses this insurance company for medical coverage.

Please continue to pray tomorrow as we head to Cincinnati to start the propranalol. If it is going to help, it will do so quickly. Pray for no side effects, pray for a reduction in the size of the hemangioma. I will have my new (to me) laptop, and camera, and hopefully will be able to keep everyone updated.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Having your eldest child turn 16 within a couple months of having your 20 year high school reunion is just too cruel. Don't ya think? How in the world did I ever get that old?

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I'd also like to nominate someone for the Nobel Peace Prize... whoever it was who thought of putting diaper sizes on the diapers... thank you from the bottom of my heart. If I knew who you were I would kiss your feet. Maybe.

I just finished signing my oldest 5 up for the Bible Bee. Have you checked it out? If not, go do so, then come on back... we'll wait.

I cannot tell you how much we are looking forward to doing this. For those of you who are local, we are sponsoring a contest at Living Word. This is a great opportunity to have your children hide God's Word in their hearts. It is inexpensive, and a wonderful thing to do as a family or church group. I'd love to see our competition get so full we need to open another site to fit all the children! If you live within an hour or two of Burkesville, KY, please consider enrolling your children. Please pass the word on to homeschool groups and churches in the area. The more Bible the children memorize, the better, huh?

And anyway- you gotta love the competition which asks how many children you will be enrolling (ages 7-18)... and gives you the options of 1 - 15! Someone's been thinking of us poor larger families who never have enough room on enrollment forms!